Love shines so bright
by Kammyh
Summary: After her regeneration, the Thirteenth Doctor can't stop thinking that she ought to be kind. She hasn't always been kind in her past, though. Luckily for her, there's Missy at her side, suggesting her who and how to help. Will the Third Doctor and his Master learn something good for themselves from the whole ordeal? THOSCHEI, JANTO. CoE-fix it
1. Introduction (Literally)

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue, hell yes, bring Ianto back to Jack first. Fiction and most of the chapters' titles copyrighted/inspired by _Flame is burning_ by Julia Samoylova (ESC2017)

 **Warnings** : Femslash and slash. Set pre-S11 (DW 2005) and after S03 (TW); messes with S09 (DW 1963). I finally got around understanding why I fell so hard for Three/Master!Delgado, I still didn't get around reconciling that conclusion with my dislike for Master!Simm. Sorry, I'm first and foremost a Torchwood girl. Not beta-read and English's not my native language, constructive criticism is appreciated.

* * *

 **Introduction (Literally)**

* * *

The Doctor stared in front of herself with an unreadable expression on her cute face. Her brown-grey eyes were vacant to say the least, but it was her whole expression that could only be described as blank, that worrying blank that usually preceded frantic panic, if Missy knew her Doctor well enough.

"I'm glad you stopped talking for once" She snapped teasingly. "You're a bloody mess"

And a bloody mess she had been indeed.

Missy had found her blond nemesis wailing in pain on a dirty patch of ground, still wearing her twelfth regeneration's clothes. The TARDIS had appeared only later, presenting itself with the doors wide opened and a complete mess of what had been inside.

"You can't tell me she fell off the TARDIS!" Missy had yelled back at the offending time machine as soon she had seen it, but the answer that lightly brushed at the back of her mind just confirmed what had happened.

Overly worried, Missy had searched for a copy of the TARDIS key amongst debris and ruined books, got a handful of girl's clothes from the wardrobe – she didn't really attempt to find something matching, after all some of the Doctor's ensembles were terrible - shut the door close and did her best to drag the semi-unconscious Time Lady to her current lair.

She eventually managed to drop the Doctor on her bed and drag her up to a sitting position, so that she could try her best to care for the worst scratches. One in particular, right above the Doctor's eyebrow, worried Missy quite a bit.

"You could have died again, you know?" Missy growled irately, trying not to focus on her will to kill the Doctor for almost losing a regeneration like that. "I still don't understand how I succeeded in killing you leading you to fall from that tower when you managed to survive now falling off from what knows where"

Missy stoically swallowed her guilt as soon as she felt it rise inside her chest and took another gauze to tend to the Doctor's wounds. When she'd finished with the last one, she double-checked her enemy and best friend for other injuries she might have missed, but the other Time Lady, all things considered, seemed well enough.

"Now, would you talk to me, my dear?" Missy offered eventually, despite her better judgement. A silent Doctor was usually a Doctor ready to talk for hours and she just wanted to get it over with.

"I'm not good enough to be called the Doctor!" The Doctor cried out eventually, hiding her eyes behind her hands in post-traumatic despair. "I have to be kind and I am not!"

Missy stared unmoved at her friend's desperation, but hearing the word _kind_ she rose graciously her eyebrow at the other Time Lady.

"Oh dear" She observed with disdain.

"You don't understand!" The Doctor yelled, turning to her dramatically as she caught her hands in hers. "I wanted to be the Doctor to cure you, but look at me! I didn't get a single thing done in thirteen regenerations and you ended up doing evil things most of the time!"

"I thought you point was being kind?" Missy attempted to point out, annoyed at the reference to her misdeeds but also mildly reassured by the Doctor's after-regeneration sincerity about her devotion to her.

"It is! If I can't even cure my best friend, what's the point in being _the Doctor_ " The Doctor's eyes fell theatrically to stare at their entwined hands.

"I'm a girl" She noticed, in the end.

Big hopeful eyes stared back at Missy, but they found only dry coldness there.

"No, love, still not ginger" Missy anticipated without an inch of empathy for her friend's distress.

"You see? I can't even force my regeneration the way I like!" The Doctor's eyes fell again, earning Missy's irritated scoff for it.

"Look, ginger hair aside" Missy tried to comfort her. "No one can really help me, so don't put your name on the table just for me, alright?"

"I should. Promising to help and not delivering is the _un_ kind _est_ of all the things" The Doctor moaned sadly. "It's just that… Well, you changed to Missy, but I still thought you as Koschei when I was supposed to just call you Master… I'm not really sure I can go through all that again with myself"

Missy rolled her eyes at the Doctor's statement.

"Call me the way you want, I'm always the same Time Lord you knew." She said hardly at her, before continuing in a much warmer tone. "That also applies to you, my dear. You can change name, if you feel like it, but you will always be my kind Doctor"

"Your _un_ kind Doctor" The Doctor snapped, pouting miserably. "I still couldn't cure you"

"It's kind of you to be still trying to help" Missy told her tenderly, freeing one of her hands to caress adoringly her friend's higher cheeks. "Despite what we do, you _know_ I love you for that"

"I could _kiss_ you for this" The Doctor admitted, staring back at her fondly, touched by Missy's attempt to reassure her about what she felt was her biggest failure as both a lover and a friend.

"Wouldn't be the first time" Missy pointed out mischievously, shortening the distance between them. "Change your name or your appearance: you are always _you_. Everything included in the package"

"I happen to think the same" The Doctor admitted, licking shyly her lips as she stared back at Missy and felt the familiar tension building between the two of them. "Isn't it a little soon for this, though? We usually take our times after regenerating before-"

The Doctor couldn't really finish her phrase, since Missy took her lips in a quick and resolute drive. Even though it had been unexpected and rash, the dark haired Time Lady put all her efforts to maintain the kiss as sweet and gentle as she could, in order to not scare the Doctor away.

Tender and delicate, only a light brush of soft lips one pair against the other. Kind, Missy would have called it, if she didn't fear to set the Doctor off once again on that kind rambling he had imposed on herself.

Missy didn't even try to move things forward and, in the same way she had connected their lips with the Doctor's at the beginning, she also broke the kiss, curious to see the Doctor's face after her first kiss as a woman.

"How was it?" Missy asked, her voice husky and mellow.

"Great" The Doctor admitted. "Girls sure have soft lips"

"Indeed" Missy agreed, moving closer to the Doctor to hold her by the waist and bring her even closer. "A new body means many new things to learn… Moreover, this is special, is your first regeneration as a girl… And we're here already-"

"I'm still jumbled from my regeneration, my dear Missy" The Doctor confessed, letting her forehead rest against the one of the other Time Lady. "And this kind thing really made me wonder about what had been going on with my… purpose, in life"

"This should remind you to not try to hypnotise your next regeneration, the next time it happens" Missy admonished her friend, nuzzling the Doctor's neck and making her shiver in delight at the contact.

"I fear this is my last" The Doctor moaned, closing her eyes involuntarily.

"Thirteen is overrated" Missy countered, kissing lightly the soft skin of the Doctor's newly regenerated neck and making both her hearts skipping a beat.

"Focusing is overrated" The Doctor cried out before grabbing her friend's shoulders and pinning her down on the mattress with a quick move that eerily remembered Missy of that regeneration in which the Doctor was well versed in Venusian aikido.

They both gasped as they stared at one another, searching their friend's expression for a sign that could communicate their will to continue or otherwise. Eventually, they both came together, their lips locking in a passionate kiss as their hands started exploring every spot they could reach.

Missy was glad that she could finally tear off her Lady Doctor the too large clothes that had belonged to her last incarnation. In some sort of way, for Missy it was a means of peeling away from this new regeneration the lasts of her former lover, in order to finally know and indulge the new one, currently showing a body too petite to belong into those old and gloomy clothes. She only wished she could do the same to the Doctor's mind, so that finally the shock and confusion of the traumatic renewal could leave her alone and let Missy finally know this new female version of the Doctor that had miraculously fallen in her lap.

The Doctor herself was glad to be freed of those clothes, too dark, too ancient and too big for her tastes, but she was even gladder that it had been the Master eventually helping her out of them. She could run away all across the universe, but Missy was right: they were always them, and her very first male body had belonged to Koschei, and so had almost all her following regenerations at one point or another. They kept falling in one each other's arms, even though she eventually always ended up running away… Because it was true what she had said in her after-regeneration confusion: she couldn't cure Koschei, and that was the proof of her failure as the Doctor.

Maybe it was not what her former regeneration wished to tell her, but it felt true all the same.

With a wet flick of her tongue over the Doctor's lower lip, Missy asked permission to deepen the kiss, and she was most glad to find her friend compliant about it. As her mouth opened, Missy took advantage of it despite her submissive position, pinned down by the by now half-naked blonde.

Missy's tongue took her time to explore, tease and tickle the roof of the Doctor's mouth, making her fair-haired friend's knees weaken and her slender body fall over her still velvet-clad form. Missy smirked inside the kiss, a quick hand taking the chance to slip inside her loose pants and between the Doctor's legs just to tease and find out how far gone her lover was.

As she retrieved her hand and licked it clean, she could certainly say quite a lot, at least considering that they had just fumbled a bit. Still, she reasoned, it was her first time as a woman, so probably the Doctor wouldn't even comprehend how close she was until it was too late.

Missy freed herself from beneath her lover and quickly undressed from her Victorian dress, resolute to enjoy her Doctor fully even though for a short while, and then swiftly proceeded to help her friend out of her own clothes. As soon as she could finally see her in all her naked beauty, Missy couldn't refrain to lick her lips in anticipation: her lips suddenly felt too dry, her mouth parched and her respiratory bypass unexpectedly didn't help her breathing at all as it should have.

"You should see yourself" Missy breathed out eventually, despite her better judgement. "You're beautiful"

The Doctor's cheek tinged light pink as she smiled shyly at her lover.

"I imagine you know how hot you look, I also already told you plenty of times" The Doctor offered playfully, advancing on her knees towards Missy in order to reach for her friend and lead her once again closer to her, putting her arm around her neck and letting their breasts press together pleasantly. "I still barely know how _I_ look like, though... I just got a glimpse of it, mostly through your eyes"

Missy smiled back at her and draw her even closer, so that they bodies were completely flushed one against the other. "And that's all you need to know, my dear Doctor"

They kissed again hungrily, and this time was it was the Doctor the one who let herself fell backwards on the bed to let Missy tower over her. It was strange, honestly, being almost the same height as the Master, even stranger now that the Master had become Missy, but the Doctor had to admit that it was a good kind of strange and less troublesome too, considering how conscious was the Master about the matter.

Missy's body was still the one she had met during her last regeneration: the same well-refined cleavage, the same soft skin, the same firm butt… She was still sensitive when she kissed her just below her jaw, her knees still turned to mush when she bit her right ear's lobe – not the left, mind that – and she still moaned in surprise when she caressed her sides up in one single subtle move.

Missy and her body were still the same she had learned to know, but much newer were the Doctor's own responses to her own ministrations. Missy's breasts felt bigger in her much tinier and smooth hands, her full lips felt firmer against her much more delicate ones and against her softer skin. The heady mix of different, old and new were making her still post-regeneration clouded mind even less focused.

Focus, however, was by all means overrated. She'd been damn right on that.

The Doctor took her chance to kiss Missy once again and devour her lips with so much passion she didn't even know she held in herself. Her lover kissed her back as fiercely as she was doing, but also took her chance to finally take the situation in her hand, not really sure that the Doctor could resist much more in that overly-excited agony.

They were going to have many more days together, after all. Weeks, months, years, centuries.

Missy made her hand slip once gain between the Doctor's legs, and moved it idly up from her bent knee to her sex. She didn't even need to actually go all the way up her thigh to feel the hot wetness trailing down from the Doctor's pussy.

"I'm going to make you come" Missy murmured into her ear, as her other hand cupped a firm breast to up the ante. "Is it fine for you, my dear Doctor?"

"T-together" The Doctor pleaded, her eyes darker and unfocused with lust, but also unsure and searching for the Master's support in the new mess of sensations she was feeling.

"Not right now" Missy told her, healing her disappointment with a light peck on her lips. "Think about yourself right now, we'll have time later to find our own ways to come together"

That said, Missy finally let her fingers slid inside the Doctor's wet and hot folds. She enjoyed the warmth, the slickness and the Doctor's surprised reaction to her movements, but despite that, she without further preamble searched for the hard numb of her clitoris. As soon as she had found it, a light shock of pleasure passed through not only the Doctor's body, but through Missy's, much to her own surprise.

Her mental defences were still up, were them?

Missy tried moving once again, now working on the hard nub of nerves surer and with a much more regular rhythm, at the same time teasing her breasts lazily with her other hand and mouth. The Doctor's breath turned shallow as she trashed on the bed, both scared and blown away by all those different sensations all coming together at the same time.

Yet the Doctor's mind defences were still up as well as Missy's were. Yet, the dark haired Time Lady could feel her orgasm building steadily as well as her discomfort at having told the Doctor to just stay put and confusion at her reactions to all that.

Missy moaned against the Doctor's cheek, feeling herself getting wetter and wetter as she slowly was bringing her lover to completion. She moved slightly up, searching desperately for the Doctor's lips to kiss deeply and restore their connection, and then shamefully decided to knock gently at her lover's mind.

The Doctor opened her eyes, feeling the silent mental plea, and stared surprised in the self-deprecating and desperate ones of her lover. If the Doctor didn't know better, the whole situation was eerily similar to their very first time, during which, for all his big words before starting, Koschei ended up so flustered with himself and what he was honestly feeling that he had eventually searched the mental comfort that only the Doctor could give him.

And no matter what hell they had put themselves though in the meanwhile, the Doctor's mind barriers fell on their own accord, as she smiled back adoringly at Missy. "You're welcomed, my dear Missy" She whispered on her lips before claiming them once again, her hands burying in her lover's dark and wild curls.

Missy couldn't wait another second more and fervently joined her mind with the Doctor's as she moved her hands faster and steadier. Despite her better judgement, her tights tightened around the Doctor's, hoping to find some kind of friction for herself. In the meanwhile, her mind was safe, securely swept away together with the Doctor's in the throws of a passion she herself was building up.

In the end, despite Missy's intents, it all became too much to bear and both the Doctor and Missy came together, holding tight on one another, their minds still tightly grasping on one another's.

Missy was the first realising what she had ended up doing, and grudgingly retired from the Doctor's mind as well as from between her legs.

"S-sorry" She mumbled, flushing scarlet as she dried her hand on the sheets of her bed.

"What for?" The Doctor countered, smiling bright at her and leaving her mind barriers down for more than it was sensible doing now that Missy had regained once again a hold of herself. "You know that you're welcomed whenever you're on your best behaviour"

Missy cough a little, trying to reclaim her composure, but eventually just decided to lie at the Doctor's side and hold tight her new petite body against her own.

"I'm always on my best behaviour" Missy protested eventually.

"You're not" The Doctor countered lightly. "But you really _are_ my best everything and my love, I _do_ mean this, believe me"

Missy sighed and held the Doctor even tighter.

"And you are _really_ kind, I mean it" Missy told her harshly despite the teasing undertone. "And this is _not_ a compliment."

"I thought as much" The Doctor duly noted, chuckling lightly.

Missy could not miss how both her hearts skipped more than just one beat finally hearing her carefree laughter, but she didn't really want to remind herself how much it meant for her making the Doctor happy.

"I really _do_ need to be kind, though" The Doctor continued, pouting miserably as she stared at Missy. " _Why_ do I? What did I miss?"

"Hmn…" Missy reflected, even though she really couldn't understand the Doctor's point. None of the points she was trying to make, actually.

The Doctor held her tighter in her arms, leaving a sweet kiss on her head.

"I'm certain you're one I wronged the most, but… You're not the only one"

"You can't really hope to find every desperate man or woman you've left pining after you" Missy objected irritably before she could stop herself. Realising what she had said, however, she flushed even more and hid her face against the Doctor's breasts in embarrassment. "I didn't really meant-"

The Doctor just offered her a light chuckle and covered her head in kisses to make her re-emerge from her cleavage. As soon as Missy peaked up from there, still looking like the perfect image of the scolded teenager, the Doctor left a meaningful peck on her lips and smiled at her.

"I love you, Koschei. Know that I've been pining and I'm still pining after you as much as you were and are pining after me"

Missy grumbled at the Doctor's words and attacked her the easiest way she could think about: tickling every inch of skin that she could reach. Eventually, they both rolled opposite sides to have the chance to catch their breaths, all the while laughing and giggling.

When they had both calmed down, it was Missy's time to actually try doing something about the Doctor's Kindness Problem.

"Jack Harkness" She proposed to the Doctor, who stared back at her dubiously. "If I were to name someone that you – and I, just to say it out loud – wronged, that's the first name that comes to my mind"

"You're bloody right!" The Doctor yelled in realisation, sitting up as if the bed had been set afire. "I need to find a way to reach for him! And then I need a plan for fixing him!"

The Doctor jumped off the bed completely naked to search for an address book or something among her old and new clothes.

Missy stared at her lost in her thoughts for a while, then she simply rolled her eyes at her beloved friend and sighed.

"My boosted processor can find your former companion easily enough, you know, my dear Doctor?"

"Really?" The Doctor cheered overjoyed, rushing back to Missy. "Will you help me then?"

"I'll help you in more way you can imagine, if I know myself well enough. But first, let me tell you something slightly more important" Missy declared teasingly, moving dangerously closer to the Doctor's lips that were curling in a cute and curious pout. "Women's body can have multiple orgasms and also have no refractory period"

The Doctor stared at her with her mouth slightly open three whole seconds before realising the not so subtle proposition. Giving her friend a wicked smile that was promptly answered back, she eventually joined once again Missy on her bed.

After all, she had more than one person to be kind to and her lover was one of them.

 **TBC**


	2. Day and night

**Day and night**

* * *

It was all an indefinite blur as Captain Jack Harkness rematerialized inside the UNIT laboratory in 1973.

As his surroundings became more clear and definite, Jack heaved a well-earned sigh of relief: trust the Doctor to allow him time travel for one special mission –and just this one, bear in mind – only to make him joining forces with UNIT of all the organizations.

He didn't really dislike – much - what UNIT had been around that time, truth to be told, but most of that depended on the Brigadier presence and his well-meaning character. If the Brigadier had still been in charge back when the 456 had destroyed his life, certainly UNIT would have helped them and now he wouldn't be travelling the universe aimlessly, trying to forget a love that might have been but had died too soon for him to just give up.

Jack shook his head clear from the bad thoughts it was beginning to be filled of and looked around himself, hoping to find a known face. Unfortunately, the laboratory he had rematerialized in seemed empty to say the least. Looking out of the windows, though, he could easily understand why: it was pitch dark.

The Captain sighed and leaned against a table full of pieces of machinery that said nothing to him and just waited for whoever came first: would it be an over worried soldier, a charming Brigadier or a shocked Doctor? It was hard not noticing the blue police box standing proud in a corner of the room, so he could allow himself to hope meeting yet another regeneration of his favourite Time Lord.

The Doctor hadn't actually told him that Jack would meet one of her past regenerations going back in time but, considering the detailed description of the situation she had given him, the Doctor was bound to pop out from somewhere at one point or another.

In the end, the first door to open really was the one of the TARDIS.

"May I know who you are and what you're doing here in my laboratory, young gentlemen?" The Doctor asked curtly, as he came out from his vehicle.

Jack took in appreciatively his elegant way of dressing and his dandyish mannerism, even though he couldn't help also noticing the heat that was apparently reddening his cheeks and the way his hair was slightly ruffled. He had seen worse on the Doctor's previous –future- regenerations, but on the one now standing in front of him those sign of distress seemed really odd.

"Captain Jack Harkness" Jack offered, showing off the best and most charming of his smiles. "I was- I mean, I will be one of your companions. I've been sent here by the Doctor of my time-stream to offer my help and my services to something that will be happening here in this time. Or at least, so I was told"

The Doctor rose an enquiring eyebrow at Jack, wondering about the meaning of the other man's words. It didn't sound like him at all, unless his future regeneration was trying to achieve a completely different objective they had not revealed even to the young Captain. He had to wonder if and how that objective would include the strange young man standing in front of him right that moment… He certainly wasn't a normal man, and he wasn't talking about his natural charm.

"You're a walking paradox, my dear child" The Doctor pointed out without preamble. "And you said that _I_ willingly sent you gallivanting around time and space?"

"Hey, you are already stranding me on daily basis" The Captain countered defensively, pointing to his Vortex Manipulator that, for whoever knew enough of off-Earth technology, was clearly stuck to _one way and return_. "This was an exception that I think you granted me only because I was a Time Agent back in the 51st century"

"You _come_ from the 51st century?" The Doctor asked, even more sceptic than before. "Dressed like that?"

The Doctor moved graciously one hand up and then down to indicate Jack's attire - currently consisting in his usual blue shirt, braces, light brown trousers and blue greatcoat – while the other went to his mouth to hide a mocking grin. Jack just rolled his eyes at his antics and smirked smartly at the Doctor.

"I was _born_ in the 51st century, you basically _exiled_ me in the _21st_ " Jack explained, voluntarily counting out the time before his first reunion with the Doctor, since that hadn't really been the Time Lord's fault. Then, he just pointed at himself. "With this condition, courtesy of one of my journeys with you"

The Doctor was left without a proper answer to offer to the Captain, too shocked by the knowledge to have been the cause of such an abnormal condition to one of his companions to actually find the will to contradict him. He tormented his lower lip, hoping to logically come to some kind of reply, but he really couldn't find a single sentence that could be deemed proper for the situation or the man himself.

"I'm sorry, child" The Doctor said in the end, not really knowing how to address someone he had condemned to his own bitterest punishment, worst of all after turning him into his worst fear in the universe: a fixed point in time.

"It's not something you should feel sorry about, especially not _you_ as you are _now_ " Jack countered lightly, offering him a charming smile. "What hurts the most is just… being alone"

Instead of feeling better, the Doctor felt even guiltier and, worse of all, even more compelled to run away from the Captain as far as he could. Without him actually noticing, his own legs slowly walked him backwards, towards the door.

Unfortunately, before he could open it to bolt outside and escape the paradox, the door was opened from the other side, letting walk inside the laboratory a resolute Brigadier, flanked by the always-loyal Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton.

"What's happening here?" The Brigadier asked, before seeing and recognizing the newcomer on the spot.

"Captain Harkness from Torchwood" He greeted gently. "Long time no see"

"Even more time than you think, Brigadier" Jack answered, taking the hand the Brigadier was offering him and shaking it lightly, his captivating smile never faltering. "I come from the future, 21st century. I managed to have my own Torchwood, eventually, you know? And also to make it fall"

"What happened?" The Brigadier asked at the same time as the Doctor, sulking at being deprived of his chance to escape and annoyed for not knowing something about the Earth, countered "What's Torchwood?"

"Torchwood is a research institute that focus on retrieving alien tech to use against the aliens that will be attacking Earth in the future" Sergeant Benton answered dutifully to the Doctor.

"Aliens like you, in particular" Captain Yates supplied with plain mirth. "Besides, they answer only to the Queen. They have nothing to do with the military or the Government"

"Outside the Government and beyond the Police" Captain Harkness proudly supplied. "My Cardiff branch focused mainly on dealing with a Rift in Time and Space located in Wales, still Captain Yates is right: originally it was _you_ in particular they were after"

"What do you mean _me_ in particular? What have I done to you?" The Doctor protested indignantly.

"You will just make a mess of things, don't worry, nothing different from the usual" Jack answered honestly, attempting to reassure the Doctor. "None of your concern at the moment. Moreover, I eventually managed to cross you out of the list, so… Just know that you will be fine, sooner or later"

"Uhm… Thanks" The Doctor evaluated grudgingly, still unsettled by the news.

"Hey, despite everything I'm still here for you, Doc, and the same goes for all you other companions from my time" Jack offered, patting the Doctor lightly on his shoulder. "As we'll always be. So just trust yourself"

The Doctor didn't really know what to think about Jack's sincere words, but luckily the Brigadier was there to change the topic of the uncomfortable discussion.

"You didn't tell me why your Torchwood failed, Captain Harkness. You always told me you had big plans to enforce, if you were to succeed in having your own"

Jack's smile faltered and the Doctor could finally see the unsure, hurt man under all that attractive façade.

"It won't really change the future, but… It's not really something I'd like to reminisce"

"If it's something involving me, by any chance, I'd like to know" The Doctor asked gently, hoping not to sound too privy. Somehow, he was certain that _there_ laid the real reason why his last regeneration had sent Jack back to him. He will have time to wonder why _him_ specifically and not another one, but unless he discovered _what_ the problem was – aside the obvious – they would never see the end of this.

"I lost my lover because of the Government" Jack explained plainly to the Doctor. "No one stood by us: not UNIT, not you… Losing him took away everything I had, everything I hoped for… I've got nothing left and no strength or hope to even think about what to do with my immortality"

The Doctor and the others stared worriedly at one another, not really knowing what to say to the crestfallen Captain.

"Still, I'm here to help" Jack told them on a lighter tone. "The Doctor from my current time said the Axons were going to come back and that you would need help. So, here I am"

Right that moment, the door to the TARDIS opened once again. Who exited the blue police box, however, this time was no one other than the Master, clad in only a white bathrobe.

"The Doctor sent you back… _for the Axons_?" He asked disbelieving, staring at the Captain with a calculating expression on his face.

"It's a most unpleasant time to come out, my dear chap" The Doctor pointed out crossly, earning only a smart smirk from his fellow renegade Time Lord.

"I wasn't aware that I would need to come out once again, my dear Doctor. I remember doing that already several hundreds years ago at the same time and in the same place as you did, to be precise" The Master taunted him. "Specifically, when our teacher found us half-naked in the farthest area of the library, where we were having sex instead of taking his boring empirical non-Euclidean mathematics test"

"No one really needed to know the details" The Doctor countered, any second more humiliated by the Master's words.

"Why, now?" The Master chided merrily. "The speech he made us do in front everyone was hilarious: everyone already knew or simply didn't care. I don't' really expect this one to turn out any different, and I really think you need my help here"

"That's _why_ you're trying to disgrace me in front of my friends?" The doctor argued indignantly.

"No, of course. That's just _how_ I'm demonstrating with facts that you _do_ indeed trust me, my dear, in order to obtain the greatest achievement of not having UNIT shoot me on the spot"

The Doctor rolled his eyes at the Master, and then eyed one after the other the other occupants of the room.

"I do wonder why I'm not even surprised, indeed" Was the Brigadier's caustic comment. "All things considered, I don't think I even want to set off the alarms"

"Thank you, Brigadier" The Doctor offered, extremely mortified. He felt even worse and even more indebted when also Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates just nodded in favour to the Brigadier's proposed amnesty.

The only one left in the dark was Jack, who just kept staring from the Doctor to the Master without grasping what was happening.

"Wait, who is the man?" He asked eventually, eyeing the newcomer suspiciously yet attentively. "Another Time Lord, Doc?"

"I am the Master" The Master introduced himself, with a charming smile that could rival Jack's.

The rest of what he thought to offer as a presentation, however, was cut off short, as Jack, hearing the name, took several quick steps behind himself to put as much distance as he could between himself and the Master.

"Not you again!" Jack yelled in panic.

"What has he done to you?" The Brigadier asked surprised, reaching for Jack to calm him down.

"He enslaved the Doctor and the Earth, he hunted down another companion like a beast and spent a whole year torturing me!" Jack protested weakly. "He destroyed my whole team, killed my lover in front of me… Luckily we managed to rewind everything that time, but I still remember everything and it was a terrible déjà vu when I lost my Torchwood all over again"

The Master stared bemused at Jack's descriptions of his misdeeds, not really convinced that he had eventually succeeded doing something so terrible. The Doctor himself felt weird hearing the story, and instinctively walked back to his lover to take a hold of him, in order to somehow reassure himself that the Master was still there and was not going around the word making messes too big to be solved by him.

"Incredible knowing that I succeeded at something so terrible, at least" The Master stated plainly, ultimately opting for sarcasm and amoral truth. "Still, I'm not the final reason for your deepest scar and I can't really blame myself for experimenting with something scientifically interesting as you are"

"Master!" The Doctor hissed in his ear, shocked by the other Time Lord's words.

"Don't worry, Doctor, I think I know what the real purpose of this charade is." The Master assured nonchalantly, barely offering a serious and worried glance at the Doctor before redirecting himself inside the TARDIS. "You and your pretty soldiers think about a way to stop the Axons with Highlander over there, I'll manage the real deal"

The Master's quick glance had petrified the Doctor on the spot more than reassuring him: he could easily guess that he didn't actually mean his words and that Jack's story had worried him too, but about what he was planning to do… that was a completely different matter.

As he saw his lover entering his TARDIS, the Doctor attempted to clear his voice under the betrayed stare of Captain Harkness and the barely amused ones of the Brigadier and the other two soldiers.

"I'll make a search for the Axons through the TARDIS scanners" He mumbled eventually. "Knowing if they really managed to escape the time loop and where they are now could help us deciding what to do… I-I shouldn't be long"

That said, the Doctor quickly disappeared inside his TARDIS, leaving all the other bystanders thinking about how much all that had just been a quick and strategic retreat after the Master.

"The Doctor and the Master" Jack acknowledged in the end, staring disheartened at the TARDIS door.

"It's not really big news for us, truth be told" Captain Yates admitted. "There have been more than a few giveaways"

Sargent Benton nodded gravely, supporting his Captain's point of view. Also the Brigadier could do nothing more than take a deep breath and cross his arms over his chest, his lips still pursed in a knowing grin.

"Yates is right, Captain Harkness." He declared, not without a little bit of complaint. "You were his companion, though. It seems strange that you never noticed a thing"

"When I travelled with the Doctor, the Master has never been around, as a matter of fact" Jack admitted, shaking his head as he tried to stop wondering how the collected man he had just seen and the mad head that had killed him daily for a year could even be the same person. "Then there was The Year that Never Was, and then…"

He stopped himself before saying ' _nothing'_ , since his mind focused on some details he had not really noticed before from his last meeting with his Doctor.

"She was with another woman when I met her last, though"

"She?" The Brigadier asked surprised.

"Yeah, The Doctor's last regeneration turned him into a cute blonde" Jack explained quickly, before resuming his speech. "The woman she was with called herself Missy… They looked quite close, even though she had just regenerated and that Missy wasn't one of her companions"

"Missy" Sergeant Benton repeated suspiciously.

"I bet my money on Mistress" Captain Yates stated proudly, crossing his arms on his chest.

"Meaning: she was the Master" The Brigadier concluded, at a loss of words all things considered and put together. "It's really something the Master would do"

"Exactly" Jack confirmed with a roll of his eyes. "I was an idiot not thinking about it before"

"You just met the Master that one time and in the worst way possible" The Brigadier offered, patting a reassuring hand on Jack's shoulder. "For us, he is basically one of the group. We know him quite well"

"Because the Doctor is stranded here" Jack noted, now really lost in his thoughts. "You know, it all makes much more sense now"

"Everything despite _you_ being _here_ from the future" The Brigadier noted. "We're not having many connections with Torchwood at the moment in order to protect the Doctor, but everything could happen and you could even meet yourself. Somehow, I think is quite a risk to take and the Doctor is certainly not one to follow through"

"I can only hope the Doctor knew what she was doing" Jack admitted, every bit as worried as the Brigadier was. "If she knew he could count on the Master, I do really wonder why she allowed me to come here"

* * *

"Master, look-"

"C'mon, Doctor, just keep silent" The Master interrupted him sharply, his voice strained by his crouched position under the TARDIS console.

"What the hell are you doing there?" The Doctor asked confused.

The Master finished up what he was doing and then re-emerged from the alcove with two red cables in his hands.

"You should just worry about the Axons, my dear" The Master scolded him. "I already told you I would think of the rest"

"Yes, but what _is_ the rest?" The Doctor asked irately. His anger, though, didn't last much, as his eyes met with the serious ones of his lover. They were the same eyes he had seen before, while they were talking with Jack.

"A bad regeneration can happen to the best of us" The Doctor told the Master when his lover didn't show any intention to speak, his voice soft and laced with worry.

"Who tells you it was just that one regeneration or that one time?" The Master argued heatedly. "Who knows how mad this thing will make me? How far you will allow me to go before stopping me… How long until you will just hate me"

"I could hardly hate you" The Doctor admitted. "No matter what you do"

"Even now, sometimes I don't really know why we end up on opposites sides" The Master confessed pensively. "You're too stubborn. Dominating an inferior race is the easy way out, if you really care about them"

"Well, that's just plain disagreement" The Doctor chuckled, the argument finally lighting up a bit. "Even if you had complete control over you actions you would still think like that and we will still fight over it. However, you know that I love you, and most likely I'll keep loving you in the future"

"I do know that Doctor" The Master admitted, heaving a sigh as he leaned over the TARDIS console, tired from pretending he was alright with the whole ordeal. "Maybe this is why we sent him back to us"

"We?" The Doctor asked uncertainly, shortening the distance between the two of them.

"You don't' really think that this plan is yours, do you?" The Master countered, as with a couple of taps on a button and a roll of a knob he activated the external camera, so that they could see the part of the humans' conversation that interested him.

* * *

" _She was with another woman when I met her last, though"_

" _She?" The Brigadier asked surprised._

" _Yeah, The Doctor's last regeneration turned him into a cute blonde" Jack explained quickly, before resuming his speech. "The woman she was with called herself Missy… They looked quite close, even though she had just regenerated and that Missy wasn't one of her companions"_

" _Missy" Sergeant Benton repeated suspiciously._

" _I bet my money on Mistress" Captain Yates stated proudly, crossing his arms on his chest._

" _Meaning: she was the Master" The Brigadier concluded, at a loss of words all things considered and put together._ _"It's really something the Master would do"_

* * *

"See?" The Master concluded, as he deactivated the camera once again. "I told you that the plan was mine"

"But Jack is _my_ former companion and _I_ sent him here" The Doctor argued petulantly.

"Of course, my dear Doctor" The Master countered, turning to face his friend and shortening the distance between them. "Because it has never happened me helping you out with one of your problems"

"And what would be my problem with him, my dear, since you know everything?" The Doctor wondered, serious yet teasing.

The Master didn't rise to the bait and just let his hand tracing the low of the Doctor's jaw.

"You want to run away from him, don't you?" He told him plainly, feeling the Doctor jump lightly under his soft touch. "I'm sure it will be hard on you knowing that you can't find a way to help him since he scares you too much"

"Master-" The Doctor whispered lightly, letting the Master's touch ground him.

"Yeah, I know, you can't know it now… However, _you_ are stranded on one time on Earth as much as he is. Among all her regenerations, you are the one who can understand Captain Harkness the best"

The Doctor sighed deeply and let his forehead resting against the Master's. "How do you know what's the solution, though? You're right, he scares me too much to think properly about a way to help him… Nevertheless, what _would_ I do, if I could think properly? What can _you_ do?"

"My dear Doctor" The Master answered him fondly, embracing the Doctor's neck with his arms and bringing him down towards him for a deep long kiss. "The answer is quite easy, since _I_ 'm the one who can better understand his dead lover"

* * *

 **TBC**


	3. I wish I had the answers

**I wish I had the answers**

* * *

Not at all certain when the Doctor – or the Master – was going to emerge from the TARDIS, the Brigadier arranged a quick briefing with Captain Harkness and his men in order to understand what the Axons situation was at that point in time.

He had to admit, at the end of it all, that it looked quite worrisome in fact, still he had to agree with Captain Yates when he had pointed out that with the Master's help – willing or unwilling - everything would have been more than manageable. On the other hand, however, the Master now seemed to be absorbed by a completely different challenge and, if he was –like he assumed - anything like the Doctor, he couldn't really dislike the presence of the immortal Captain among them, no matter the consequences on a temporal level.

Unfortunately, even though Jack used a way less technical approach and jargon than the Doctor's, he still spoke in a way that the Brigadier wasn't really able to understand fully. All things considered, they would really have better to wait for the Doctor to emerge from the TARDIS or for the Master to take pity on them.

Better if both.

Just to be certain that he had done absolutely everything in his power, however, the Brigadier sent a message to Geneva to brief them too on the upcoming mission and to have reinforcements sent his way in case the situation derailed.

In the meanwhile, the two Time Lords had reached some sort of understanding, particularly about the way the Master was allowed to dress, if they really wanted to have some proper work done. Unfortunately, in order to reach that essential concession, why the Master felt some kind of connection with Jack's deceased lover became a taboo topic.

Nevertheless, it wasn't a pressing matter, and the Doctor was certain that he could find a way to get the information he wanted once back into the bedroom together or after he had stripped the Master of his clothes in one of the hundreds rooms at his disposal, whichever came first.

As soon as he wasn't dressed in a way that distracted the Doctor even more than he usually did, the Master offered to explain the main focus of his plan to lift some of the burden from the Captain Harkness' shoulders and from the Doctor's guilt list: getting back to the livings Captain Harkness' boyfriend.

The Doctor didn't like the plan so described one single bit, his main reason being that his former companion was now a fixed point in time and therefore they weren't supposed to interfere.

The Master simply pointed out that, if they were to follow the rules of no-interference and counterparts, they would still be living under the glass dome of the Time Lords' citadel on Gallifrey. The Doctor couldn't pinpoint any better retort to that one.

Annoyed and irritated – not to mention slightly aroused – as he was, the Doctor grudgingly put himself to work on his own task, still stealing surreptitious glances at the Master, who was dangerously tangling himself in too many cables and bare wires to make him feel at ease.

Considering that Jack was _his_ former – future - companion and that the task seemed intellectually challenging as much as for a good cause, the Doctor really wanted to help his friend with it… But he really _couldn't_. No wonder that his future regeneration had eventually chosen to help Jack an intellectually cooperative version of the Master and a Doctor that couldn't really give speeches against the feelings of someone stranded like he currently was.

As soon as he had in his hands all the data he could get from the TARDIS about the Axons' current whereabouts, the Doctor decided to join his friends outside, actually following through the Master's suggestion to leave everything else to him.

"Here I am" The Doctor greeted eventually, feeling suddenly abashed as he noticed all his friends sitting around the same table and staring at him, just like they were waiting for some kind of answer. What was worse was that, while he had been inside the TARDIS, Jo had apparently joined the group and had been briefed about the current situation. The Doctor's love affair included.

After some moments to consider his options, he just took a deep breath and sat among them, putting the records he had printed in the middle of the table to show the data properly to everyone in the group.

"And here are the records from the TARDIS" The Doctor continued subdued, still unable to look his friends in the eyes.

"It's really fine with us, Doctor" Jo said kindly, deciding to address the problem straight on, instead of going on talking awkwardly until it would have been too much for any of them. "We can't really tell you who to care for, can we?"

The Doctor dared to steal a glance in her direction and a small smile found his way on his lips, only to fade soon after.

"You have every right to not be fine with it, actually" The Doctor countered plainly, as if he was stating a fact. "Even though you're right… Even _I_ can't tell myself to stop caring for him"

"I can understand that, Doc" Jack offered sympathetically, placing a callous hand over the Doctor's unbelievably smooth one. "Ianto's dream for some time was to see me dying… Yet we fell in love with one another despite what was sensible being leader and underling"

The Doctor stared back at the Captain, rising a suspicious yet gracious eyebrow in his direction.

"Did he really?"

"Oh yeah, Doctor" Jack told him, offering him his biggest and saddest smile. "You inspired me to find a way to be a hero… But I'm not really good at it. I'm not a good person, and the Brigadier can vouch for me on this one"

The Doctor's stare turned to the Brigadier, who just offered them a knowing smile and shook his head.

"Captain Harkness is a man of duty and as such he acts" He explained plainly, staring proudly back at Jack. "The whole army respects him for that, deep down"

"That's why they fear me" Jack finished what the Brigadier couldn't allow himself to say. "Ianto was the only one who actually succeeded making me kind… Or at least, he helped me feeling something when I couldn't follow up to my initial intentions. See? You're not the only one with a love life morally questionable"

The Doctor simply nodded, his mind full of thoughts as he tried to put together what he had just learned with what the Master had told him before, about his own interpretation of _The Plan_. If Jack was right, wasn't this Ianto supposed to be more akin to himself than to the Master?

Eventually, the Doctor just shook his head: he had time to think about this later. This particular matter was the Master's, at the moment, what they had to think about was just the Axons escaping their time loop.

Hoping that all that thinking was enough to convince at least himself, the Doctor shouldered his friend's acceptance of his _betrayal_ and proceeded to explain them the whereabouts of the enemy aliens. That, put together with the information provided by Jack, appeared to be a good point to start discussing some feasible plans.

They all worked non-stop until midday. The Doctor, flanked by Jo, was preparing a well-refined mechanism to put the Axons in a more definitive time loop, while the Brigadier and Jack busied themselves preparing both the strategy to make the aliens falling into their trap and what to do in the off chance that they didn't manage to follow through their plan.

The Doctor had been mildly disappointed realising that Jack too was one of those companions who weren't of much help in his scientific experiments, but couldn't say much else when the Captain just pointed out that at his Torchwood he had recruited his boyfriend exactly for that reason.

Why each time the Doctor said something it only lead to Jack talking about his lost lover? And why did _he_ feel so guilty about it? Was guilt something so timeless that he could feel it even though it was something caused by one of his future regenerations? Was the Master feeling the same?

"Doctor?" Jo called him eventually, bringing him out of his reverie. "It's lunch time, you know…"

"Yes, Jo. If you want to go, you may go. Don't worry" He offered, smiling gently at her as he caressed her head paternally.

"It's not really what I meant" Jo attempted to say embarrassedly. "You know, maybe… Do you think that… I don't know, maybe the Master would like to join?"

The Doctor stared at Jo, startled by her words. He hadn't really forgotten that his lover was working with alacrity inside his TARDIS - far from it considering how frequently he had gone checking whether he was still alive or not - but he hadn't really thought possible an offer of that kind. The idea of the Master joining the rest of the group outside seemed almost illegal.

Both Time Lords had somehow supposed that the TARDIS could be treated as a neutral area, and that UNIT and Jack's declaration of acceptance was just a pronouncement of intentions to respect such neutrality. The invitation to the Master to join them for lunch was something the Doctor was completely unprepared for.

And yet, he realised, he yearned for it, just as much as he was certain that the Master would just politely decline.

"I'll go asking him" The Doctor answered her eventually, attempting a soft smile that didn't really reach his eyes.

It still seemed to be enough for Jo, who just nodded and gave him the biggest smile she could muster before going to join the others. The Doctor simply shook his head at his companion's joyful behaviour and entered the TARDIS, rolling his eyes at the shaking heap of cables amassed in front of the console.

"Are you fine under all that?" The Doctor questioned the pile, grimacing at it in disdain.

The mass of cables shook irritated, and after a while from the depth of it emerged the Master.

"I almost got the right ones" The Master pointed out with dignity, clutching in his hands a rainbow of colourful wires. "If you learned not to leave a mess of your laboratory and your resources, I wouldn't be stooping so low to get what I need"

"I suppose it's not the right time to point out that those cables in particular came from _your own_ TARDIS" The Doctor teased amused, taking away from the Master's hair a stray wire left forgotten.

The Master freed himself from the rest of the mess of cables and wires, and then closed up the distance between himself and the Doctor, staring up at him with a defiant expression on his face.

"You're right, Doctor, it's not really the right time"

The Doctor chuckled at his lover and left a compliant light peck on his lips.

"Jo wondered whether you wished to join the others for lunch or not. We could go together"

"I do appreciate you kisses, my dear. Still they are not enough to make me heading straight to my own execution" The Master stated plainly, as he moved once again back to the TARDIS console, in order to link up two of the wires he had retrieved to the neutron flow main gate, which he was currently using to charge two small circuit boards. "A higher form of retribution, perhaps, would be better suited for the task" He offered, though.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, but followed the Master's movements appreciatively, especially as his lover plainly bent over the TARDIS console to do his task, giving him a good view of his perfect backside. He tried his best to get a grip on himself, and then reached the Master at the console, enveloping him in his arms from behind.

"C'mon, would you come?"

The Master shifted uncomfortably in his arms, interrupting the work he was doing with his sonic welding torch and pressing his back against his lover's chest instead.

"You know that I would really like to come" The Master teased, his brown eyes shining with mischief. "Still, it wouldn't be to lunch"

The Doctor hid his face in the crook of his lover's neck, sounding yielding to say the least.

"I'll make you come as much as you want: now, later or tonight. But I would really appreciate having lunch with the others together with you"

"You're asking a lot from me, my dear" The Master said, heaving a sigh as he turned to stare properly at the Doctor. "I'm currently helping _you_ , but who knows what the future will bring. You can't ask this to them. For us, you know… is just who we are"

"Can't the future just bring happiness?" The Doctor protested awkwardly, swallowing hard. "If we work together, I'm sure that one day I will even be able to find a cure for you"

The Master smiled lovingly at him as he caressed lightly his jaw.

"My dear Doctor, so trusting and kind" He said as an afterthought, reaching up to him to kiss him deeply on the lips. "I'll come with you, if it's so important to you. But just this once"

"It's-" The Doctor attempted to explain himself, still not entirely sure about what he was thinking and feeling. "It _is_ important, for me. I never really realised how much until Jo asked me…"

"I _do_ know you Doctor, I'm honestly surprised you didn't come to this realisation by yourself. It's not something _I_ would do, but I'm not shocked by you asking" The Master offered him with a smart smile. "C'mon, let's go before I reassess risks and gains"

As the Master attempted to lead him outside by taking the Doctor's hand in his, the fair-haired Time Lord used the leverage he had to make him stay exactly where he was.

"Changed your mind already? Too ashamed by who your childhood friend turned out to be?" The Master asked teasingly, turning to stare at the Doctor. His lover, however, was just staring down at his feet, looking way beyond mortified.

"It's that, you know" The Doctor muttered uncertainly, uncharacteristically at a loss of words. "I could do it before going to lunch… I mean, making you come"

The Master rose an elegant and suspicious eyebrow at his lover, then he automatically lowered his eyes to stare at the Doctor's pelvis. As suspected, the Doctor wasn't really in a condition that allowed him to step outside the TARDIS, lunch or not lunch.

"Making me come or making _you_ come, my dear?" The Master teased, walking back his steps to hold the Doctor in his arms and have a good and proper look at his expression. "You could have just said it"

"You coming to lunch is really important to me" The Doctor protested heatedly. "Still, we've been interrupted halfway yesterday and we worked non-stop ever since…"

The Master reached up to cup the Doctor's face with his hands and guided it lower towards him to kiss him once again on the lips. As his hands moved up to entangle themselves into the Doctor's white-blond curls, also the kiss grew more passionate and deep.

The Master's tongue darted forward and traced the Doctor's bottom lip carefully, before he took it between his front teeth. As soon as the Master let it go, the Doctor was ready to deepen the kiss, all too willing to savour properly his lover's well-known mouth.

The Master's hands caressed the Doctor's broad shoulders and then from there they descended over the plain muscles of his chest. The double beat of his hearts felt reassuring and calming, in opposition to the drumming always present in his head.

The Doctor moaned under the soft caresses, but apparently it wasn't quite what he had in mind. As he felt the Master's roaming hands moving lower to undo his fly, he definitively decided it was the right time to keep up with the proposition he had put forward himself.

He swatted away the Master's hand and, in order to prevent any future recrimination, palmed thoroughly his lover's cock from over his pants as he literally devoured his mouth. Swept away from the double assault, the Master moaned compliantly in his mouth and let the Doctor lead him where he wanted, namely perched on the TARDIS console.

After the Doctor had made The Master lain as much as he could over the mix of hopefully deactivated buttons, knobs and screens, he fully accommodated himself between the Master's legs, towering over him as he kept kissing him. The Master's legs automatically closed around his lover's waist, despite feeling each moment more self-conscious of their difference in high and bone structure, being so easily manoeuvred by the Doctor.

Before he could protest about it, however, his lover had already moved lower, leaving momentarily his lips to kiss his neck, as his hands teased the Master's hardening nipples from above the thin layers of cotton of his uniform. So distracted, he didn't even notice it when the Doctor stopped everything he was doing to kneel between his legs until he felt wet warmth on his groin, as his lover keenly mouthed the tip of his cock over the thin fabric of his pants.

"Now, that's a bit unfair" The Master protested.

The moan that followed the Doctor's continuous ministrations, however, reassured the fair-haired Time Lord that he was actually doing well. As soon as the Doctor could manage to unbutton them, the Master's trousers were the first item of clothing to go, eventually lying forgotten beneath the console. Not really wishing to give the chance to the Master to adjust himself to the feeling, the Doctor decided to keep teasing the hardening member with his hands, as he followed through biting and licking the softer skin of his inner tight.

The Master's light hiss was a better reward than everything he would ever wish for.

As the Doctor deemed his lover ready enough, the Master's underwear were next to go, joining their fellow trousers straight away.

From there on, the Doctor was free do play as he pleased with his lover's cock, tasting and licking him the way he knew the Master favoured. He worked idly with his hands as long as he was focused on his balls, and then, when he was satisfied with his work, he engulfed him in earnest, still keeping up the rhythm with his hands whenever and wherever he couldn't reach.

It wasn't just the technique and the speed he favoured, there was also the deep contrast wherever his hands touched between their heated flesh and the Doctor's unfathomably cold rings. Among all the regenerations the Master had met, this current one was the one that was less about to forget about jewellery, and the effect all of this was having on him during intercourse was almost unbearable.

The Master would usually grab a hold of the Doctor's soft curls or manoeuvre him back in a position that could allow him to return the favour, but the current arrangement left him basically unable to move. The only thing he could do was attempting to grab the few knobs he knew by heart to be fixed, in the faint hope to not power up something by accident.

Satisfied by the Master's level of arousal and harassment, the Doctor used one of his hands to undo his own fly and finally reach for his own aching cock.

As the Master's hardness pulsed in his mouth, the Doctor took him deeper, so that the head almost hit the back of his throat. Still, it didn't seem enough to allow the Master to his release.

The Doctor, then, allowed himself to look up at the Master and, understanding what his problem was, lowered his mental barriers, brushing lightly at his lover's mind to let him feel how he too was indeed aroused and enjoying their encounter.

He felt the need, the worry and the nervousness on the other side of the Master's barriers for a fleeting moment, then all those sensations were thrown back at him like a huge wave as his lover burst open his mental doors and allowed the Doctor inside his shaken mind.

The Doctor's warm reassurance invaded his mind, firmly grounding him like a lifesaver. That small offer of protection and comfort was enough to allow the Master to finally come straight down the Doctor's throat.

Once the Master was spent, it only took a couple of more strokes by his own hand to make the Doctor finishing off too.

As the last of the aftershocks subsided, he rested his forehead on the Master's tight and breathed in deeply the musky scent of his lover.

"I told you I would make you come" The Doctor stated eventually, making the Master burst in laughter.

Their minds still lingered a bit more in the comfort they were providing to one another before finally accepting that it all had finished and they had to rise up their barriers once again and attempt to look somewhat presentable.

"Let's go, my Doctor" The Master told the Doctor jokingly in the end, as his lover finally helped him down the TARDIS console. "I'm already fashionably late for lunch with your family as it is"

* * *

Lunch wasn't as weird as everyone had imagined, despite it turning out to be the chance they had needed to adjourn everyone about how each group was doing.

Everything seemed proceeding smoothly, despite the complete lack of trust Jack had in relation to the Master's plan as soon it was revealed _helping_ _him with his_ _situation_.

If really helping him in one way or another was a so easy matter, why didn't the Doctor attempted to do something himself ages ago? Somehow, the plain answer of the Master "Because I have no regards for rules and morality" didn't just seem enough, even though Jack couldn't really debate the point.

Finished eating, everyone returned to their own assignments eagerly, not before the Master had once again politely declined any kind of explanation about his own part in _The Plan_.

Before the evening came, the Doctor had finally finished his own device, and the others had elaborated a satisfactory strategy to make use of it the best way possible. No one really wanted to go investigating whether the Master had finished his work as quickly as they'd done, though, since the man had been each hour more evasive about what he was doing.

Eventually, the Doctor took it upon himself to go and see what his lover was up to. After all, the Master's task wasn't as urgent as theirs was, but somehow he had hoped to have this marvellous man back before encountering the Axons, if not for any better reason than to make Jack stop talking about him, since it made him feel like a guilty coward.

As soon as he had entered the TARDIS, though, all his elegance and refined mannerism could do nothing to prevent him from swearing aloud.

Jo and Jack followed suit, worried that something bad might have happened. As soon as they saw what was occurring inside the TARDIS, they could only notice that they fears were indeed well founded. They held tight on one another, their eyes large with worry as they stared at their friend.

"Doctor, the Time Vortex!" Jack yelled at the Time Lord overly scared, seeing how he seemed to have been petrified too close to the console to really be safe. Jack could understand his panic though, since of the door that lead to the time Vortex inside the TARDIS was wide-open, blazes of golden dust reaching outside like appendix of a blind octopus.

"Out of here, you two!" The Doctor yelled at them, as soon as he realized that they had joined him inside the TARDIS.

"Oh, really" Jack just retorted plainly, almost glaring at him.

The Doctor, barely in control of himself, still managed to roll his eyes, admitting to himself that yes, Jack had actually nothing to fear from the Vortex as long as he didn't decide to jump inside it. Still, Jo had to clear and clear fast.

Remembering the mess that had happened with Rose, Jack was more than willing to oblige the Doctor's orders.

The Captain, however, decided to join once again the Doctor inside the TARDIS soon after, knowing that he was the only one who could stop him from behaving foolishly, if the worst were to happen.

"What the hell is happening, Doctor?" Jack asked eventually, managing to reach the Time Lord and take a hold of his velvet-clad arm to have his attention on him.

"The Master" Was the Doctor's breathy answer. If Jack didn't know better, he would have said he was almost hyperventilating. "The Master finished his devices and preparations and entered the Time Vortex by himself, that foolish conceited pompous man!"

"Why would he?" Jack asked, not understanding why the Master would do something so blatantly stupid. "You're Time Lords and he prepared for this, but… You have limits of your own!"

"He wants to get you boyfriend back" The Doctor confessed eventually, scanning from afar the various panels of the console to find one that could tell him about the Master's whereabouts and if his stupid plan was at least working properly. "I don't understand why, but he sort of _feels_ for him. This is why he wanted to be the one taking all the risks and all the glory... He didn't explain anything to me, though! Not even how he was supposed to achieve that. How was I to guess that the idiot wanted to jump inside the Vortex?"

Jack couldn't really believe the Doctor's words, especially considering _who_ the first Master he had met was. Still, he held the scared Doctor close to him, hoping to give him comfort as well as to bring him as far away from the flares of Time Vortex as humanly possible, considering how much they kept expanding inside the room.

"You mean he _really_ jumped inside? He's attempting to navigate the pure Time Vortex just… Just to get my Ianto?"

"I fear so" The Doctor admitted, grudgingly thankful for Jack's physical attempts to ground him.

"I would have never expected this from the same Time Lord that killed him in front of my eyes" Jack muttered, tightening his grip on his friend. "I must tell you this, despite everything that's going on between the two of you"

"The regenerations process is tricky… A bad regeneration can happen to the bests of us and he is prone to madness in general" The Doctor countered. "He likes making a mess of things as a cry for attention, he falls so deeply in scientific research that he forgets the line between moral and amoral even exists, he would attempt to enslave a whole world just to offer it to me as a present… But even _I_ can't recognize the Master you described as my own. It implies a far too a definitive close call for those dear to either of us, too much all in a single run"

"The Mistress… Missy, I mean, the woman who was with your last regeneration" Jack offered him warmly. "She looks way more like _your_ Master than the one I met, you know?"

The Doctor presented him with a grateful smile, before thanking him from the depth of his heart. No matter how bad a regeneration could turn out to be, he was glad to know that things would eventually turn out for the better and that they would still be together, how it was supposed to be.

It meant that he would be still in time to find a cure and, most importantly, that the Master would still be around to need one.

 **TBC**


	4. Finding the courage to go

**Finding the courage to go**

* * *

It had been late afternoon when the Master had finally finished his work and collected every evidence he could find on Jack's infamous boyfriend. Luckily, the Captain being a fixed point in time meant that the TARDIS backlog, when properly tampered with, could give every bit of information with one hundred percent certainty.

There was no reason for the Master to wait for someone to accompany him in this mission, then. He alone would suffice. Mostly because, if he had to shame himself, he was going to do so in front of the fewest public possible, thank you very much.

And shaming was exactly what was waiting for him, if he had understood Ianto's character properly and he wanted to bring him back to the livings before his time ran out.

He would do this alone, for his Doctor. It would be his present to him, fruit of the genius mind he knew the Doctor admired and adored.

At least, this time the Doctor might even appreciate his efforts, since he usually welcomed the Master's presents screaming at him that what he had planned and done was evil and he wouldn't go along with his plans over his dead body.

Bad, Master! _This_ is evil, _that_ is evil… Sometimes the Master wondered why he even tried anymore.

Therefore, he put on one of the bracelet-shaped devices he had prepared and, without second thoughts, he opened the locked door to the Time Vortex hidden in the depth of the TARDIS console.

As the yellow flares of Vortex began spreading inside the room, the Master simply jumped into it and attempted to find his way in the dense golden mist the best he could.

He had studied the quandary in the smallest details and had quickly reached some very interesting and promising conclusions: the boy was not in the void, he was in the Time Vortex, for just stating the most important of them all, and any access to the Time Vortex was a viable one. The one from the Doctor's TARDIS included.

It was a hazard deciding to test his theory without gathering any proof to confirm his suppositions beforehand, but he was lacking time and the mission was more challenging this way.

The Master sometimes missed important details in the makings of his plans, that was true, and the Doctor wasn't really far off telling him that his way of thinking was most of the times complicated and inefficient… but he really wanted to pull this off alone. No matter if a double check by the Doctor would have made his plan work better, in a no different way that a double check of the Doctor's plans – usually overly simplistic and missing of many variables – was always very welcomed by his friend and lover.

Eventually, he reached a platform…

A platform inside the Vortex. Its core, perhaps? Yes, maybe a double check from the Doctor wouldn't have been a bad idea, the Master might have survived the taunting.

Or maybe not.

He looked around himself but all he saw was shiny golden dust for an infinite number of miles away. Hence, he just kept moving forwards, forcing himself through the Vortex that seemed unnaturally thickening around him.

Time Lords didn't need much oxygen, still, if the dust kept thickening like it was, even he wouldn't be able to go on anymore.

He couldn't give up, though. His complete disregard for the rules could for once be helpful and he _had_ to pull this through. With a last push, he managed to go across the denser curtain of golden dust surrounding him and finally move to a way more open space, where there was plenty of oxygen and the fog was less impenetrable.

At the centre of the empty space he had entered, there was a young man, sitting down on the platform the Master was walking on. His head was hidden behind his knees, but there wasn't supposed to be many souls wondering the Vortex, so he decided to try asking directly. He hurried at his side and attempted to wake him up from his lethargy with a discreet hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, are you Ianto?" The Master asked hopefully.

The young man stared back at him surprised and nodded.

The Master didn't really know what he was thinking to find there, but somehow the young man was exactly how he had imagined him. Young, handsome and elegant in his neat suit were just an added bonus, because what definitively made the Master realise that he _had_ to be Ianto and that his whole understanding of the situation was correct were his sad and tired eyes.

Sad and tired in a way that wasn't much different from his own.

"Who are you?" Ianto asked suspiciously, bringing the Master's full attention back on him.

"I'm the Master" He offered courteously, knowing that his brain had to think fast and good to achieve his primary goal. "I came here to bring you back to the livings"

Ianto stared back at him, shocked for just a split second, then he pursed his lips in a knowing grin that made the Master realise that the battle of wits would have been just a little bit harder than what he had thought at the beginning.

"The same Master who killed me during The Year That Never Was?" Was the young man plain and curt reply.

"You are not really supposed to know that" The Master protested, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Jack said you were blond" Ianto said as an explanation, offering him an innocent and completely fake smile. "You hurt him" He continued in a flat tone, completely void of any pretended sympathy.

The Master stared at the young man a bit surprised, and then just chuckled.

"That's your weak point then, isn't it?" He countered, holding Ianto's glare with his own amused stare. "Him ending up hurt by people"

"What's wrong with not wanting the man you love to suffer?" Ianto protested annoyed, barely showing his actual age as he sported a deeply offended pout.

"He is suffering now without you" The Master countered seriously, knowing that he had no chance to delay his humiliation anymore, just to put it in a way that was acceptable by his standards. "Please, trust me and come with me. You will be fine once out of here"

"And I should trust you." Ianto deadpanned. "Why?"

"Because I'm here to bring you back to Captain Harkness for the very same reason" The Master admitted eventually, lowering his stare to look at everything that wasn't the young man in front of him.

"Oh really?" Ianto asked, not believing him at all, but analysing with calculative interest the change of attitude in the Time Lord. "You don't want Jack to suffer either, then?"

"I don't want _my Doctor_ to suffer" The Master admitted grudgingly.

Ianto stared back at the Master with his whole attention now, his features softening as he began understanding what the whole point of this situation was.

"What do you mean?" Ianto enquired eventually, attempting to sound friendly and trusting enough that the Master could actually offer him his own explanation. He still didn't trust the man that had hurt Jack so much in that year he didn't remember, but if there was someone who could trust love to influence people's behaviour Ianto certainly was that man. The Doctor, however, was an entirely different matter. "The Doctor never wanted to help. He left Jack abandoned, alone and confused. He hurt him-"

"He _can't_ help" The Master interrupted him, sitting right next to Ianto. "The Doctor runs, my child. From love, friendship, problems… He _can't_ stop himself, even when he wants to. Complex and binding things scare him to the core. He will soon run away even from me, even though all he wants is keeping me by his side… Because he can't help me and he can't stand it. He will _never_ tolerate not being able to help the people he cares for. Your lover is unfortunately in this kind of situation and since the Doctor can't help him, he could do nothings else than running away from him"

"If _he_ can't help, how can _you_?" Ianto complained, the Master's explanation just confusing him more as it changed a bit too much of his perspective on things, especially the infinite dislike he held for the Doctor. "And _why_ would you?"

"I can't fix Captain Harkness either" The Master prompted, rising his hands in surrender and finally looking back at Ianto to show him how honest and serious his words were. "But _I can_ get you back and I also have every intention of _doing_ it. It's against the rules, of course, but going against the rules is not really something that bothers _me_. It just bothers the Doctor, sometimes. Him bothered is a small price to pay to lift future guilt from his heart, though, don't you think?"

"Future?"

" _I'm_ still not the same Master that tortured your lover and _my Doctor_ is still not the same Doctor who is responsible for him becoming immortal"

"Then how-"

"Ianto, c'mon, we want the same things…" The Master pleaded eventually.

Ianto's mind was in a frenzy. The Master looked sincere… He _was_ sincere, he was certain of it. Still, coming back wasn't an easy choice to make: Jack still couldn't be fixed and the Doctor would still run away from him. He could only help him make his exile on Earth more bearable.

Would his love be enough? _Why_ was the Master so certain that it would be enough?

"You…" Ianto asked eventually, fighting with himself to find the proper words. "Do you love the Doctor?"

"Just like you love your Jack" The Master admitted regretfully, then he took one of Ianto's hands with his and closed the space between them, staring deeply in Ianto's blue eyes. "Come back with me"

"I can't!" Ianto protested, freeing himself from the Master's grip and hiding his head once again between his knees. "Look, me coming back won't fix him, it won't help any of them at all… There's no reason to not abide the rules"

The Master rolled his eyes and swore mentally.

Well, yeah, of course the dead one was the noble one of the pairing, somehow he doubted breaking the rules would have been a problem for Captain Harkness. In this, and only in this will to be good and play fair, the boy really looked like his Doctor. Maybe that was why the Captain had fallen for him in the first place, considering how were all the Doctor's companions…

Still, the Master knew, there was something that _they_ and only they could relate on.

"Ianto, be reasonable! He's stranded on a third rate planet!" The Master yelled back at the Welshman, holding tight his shoulders to make him stare back at him. "Don't tell me you have never seen his eyes sad staring at nowhere, his despair at not being allowed to travel in time and space as he was used to. You _must_ have seen that, and that _must_ have made your heart bleed"

"You know an awful lot to just be guessing" Ianto noted defensively, his hurt eyes glistening with unshed tears despite the soothing golden light all around them confusing their own appearances.

"I'm not guessing" The Master admitted reluctantly. "This is the reason why _I am_ currently here, on a third rate star, attempting to convince _you_ coming back to make _your_ lover happy. My Doctor is now stranded on Earth as much as Captain Harkness is back in your time-stream"

"Please" The Master kept pleading. "Come back to the livings with me. If _I_ could be willing to follow the rules every once in a while for my Doctor, _you_ may as well break a few for the sake of your lover"

It was a real dilemma for Ianto deciding whether to trust the Master or not. It could have been only a charade to hold him hostage and get something from Jack, they could have got everything all wrong and Jack wouldn't really care about his coming back… Still, the Master _genuinely_ looked sincere.

He looked even more so considering how it wasn't just plain sincerity - something that would be completely unimaginable for a Time Lord, bearing in mind Jack's stories – but sincerity basically extorted despite his better judgement. Certainly, the Master could fake that too –Ianto himself was a master of the speciality - but somehow the Time Lord honestly looked like he meant what he was telling him. Besides, not many people could understand what meant caring for a stranded lover, so that certainly must have come from somewhere true.

"Alright" Ianto stated eventually, offering the Master his hand.

"Perfect" The Master gloated, the rush of victory heady to his mind as he grabbed Ianto's wrist firmly. "And right in time. A couple of minutes more and I would have had to hypnotise you to make you coming back. I don't like losing"

"Why didn't you tell me there was a time limit?!" Ianto protested, as he allowed the Master to put some weird kind of device on his wrist.

"What would be the fun in that?" The Master countered merrily.

"It wouldn't have been much fun when you would have attempted to hypnotize me and failed miserably at it" Ianto countered in a deadpan. "I was Torchwood _one_ before being Jack's. The main branch trained us to be immune to hypnosis"

The Master's eyes grew larger as he stared back in shock at Ianto, some of the words the Brigadier and his men had said about that Earth organization the humans belonged to coming back to his mind.

"You were trained against the Doctor" He realised suddenly, swallowing down the realisation of the biggest fault in his plan as he rushed his movements to fix the device properly on Ianto's wrist.

"Yup. No hypnosis risk allowed" Ianto just confirmed before eyeing the contraption better: it strangely looked like Jack's Vortex Manipulator. "How is this thing going to work?"

"It will harness the time energy lingering around us in this vastly huge place to re-materialize us in the TARDIS control room just an hour after I entered the Vortex, no matter where we are. This is it, explained really simply of course. Obviously you have embedded in yours also the procedure to make you coming back with a proper body that can actually live and breathe on Earth"

Ianto would have actually liked the chance to look at the contraption better and maybe study it a bit, but there didn't seem to be enough time left to do that. The Master's words, however kept whirling in his head and mixing with the personal studies he had conducted on Jack's VM… There was some kind of conclusion to what the Master had described…

"Wait, Master! This means that the device-" Ianto realised all of sudden, but it was already too late and the bracelet-like contraptions activated, making both of them disappear in a flash of golden light.

* * *

In the meanwhile, inside the TARDIS control room the Doctor and Jack were still staring at the open door to the Time Vortex, panic written all over their faces. The Doctor, especially, looked scared to his core and held to the Captain's flowing greatcoat for dire life as he tried to reach the Master's mind through their mental link without much success.

"What if something is not working?" The Time Lord told the Captain after a while. "How can I retrieve him from inside the Vortex if I'm not even sure he's still there?"

"You will find a way, Doc, you always do" Jack told him reassuringly, caressing his arm from shoulder to forearm attempting to calm him down . "But he is a scientist as well, just trust him for a while more"

"He is the greatest genius I know" The Doctor confirmed, surprising himself to not feel bothered at all by the admission. "But he always manage to make a mess of things. If he had asked for my assistance-"

"Doc, honestly" Jack interrupted him, trying to convey to his friend all the love he felt for the man despite what he had to say. "You have no idea of how messy _you_ can make things, believe me. From what the Brigadier tells me, you two together are hell. I'm glad I got stuck with Torchwood while I lived in this time, and this despite the weekly tortures"

"Why do you _always_ end up tortured?" The Doctor snapped, annoyed at the Captain way too sincere words.

"Don't really know" Jack admitted, staring uncomfortably in the Doctor's eyes as he was shaking his head.

Right at that moment, a blast of light burst inside the room, blinding them momentarily.

When they could open their eyes once again, the Doctor and Jack could see the unconscious body of their respective lovers lying on the ground in front of the open door to the Vortex.

"Koschei!" The Doctor yelled as Jack was calling out "Ianto!"

They simultaneously moved towards the door to close it once again.

It wasn't an easy task: the door seemed to have stuck open, and the flares of the Vortex just seemed to pressure it to stay like that.

Both the Doctor and Jack had to pull forth all their strength and their will to contrast its force. Their muscles ached and their mind spun wildly, but the knowledge that the lives of the rest of the planet and their lovers' wellbeing depended on them closing the damn door to the Vortex helped them to eventually find enough strength to do the task.

As the door finally shut closed with a loud clank, the Doctor hurried to get a strong chain to slip inside out its handles, and then sealed it with the biggest lock he could find.

Solved the most challenging problem at hand, the Doctor and Jack finally could give all their attention back to their lovers. The Doctor knelt over the Master and Jack over Ianto, both staring at them with worried eyes, unsure whether they could try to touch them or not.

In the end, it was Jack the first attempting to leave a soft caress on Ianto's cheek.

He trembled, feeling the familiar soft skin under his fingers, but the sensation only lead him to move forward and take his lover in a strong hug. As his ears could finally hear the steady and regular beat of his heart, the room filled with Jack's heart-breaking sobs of joy.

The Doctor smiled sadly at his companion and then focused on the Master, still laying asleep in front of him. His hands tentatively pressed wide open over the Master's hearts on his chest and he was glad to feel the regular double beat vibrating reassuringly under his palms. Overwhelmed by the sensation of relief he was feeling, he bent over his lover and rested his forehead against his, poking at the edge of his mind to wake him up from his sleep.

The soft mental nudge seemed enough to make the Master open his eyes and stare back at the Doctor tiredly.

"Doctor" The Master mumbled slowly, taking in the panic still impressed in the Doctor's features.

"Welcome back, old chap" The Doctor managed to greet him, even though his whole body was still trembling with a mix of fear and relief he couldn't very well manage to control.

The Doctor wanted to hold him, but he wasn't certain it was healthy doing so after the strain he had endured. He wanted to tell him how scared he had been of just losing him like that not knowing where he was and not managing to find him through the mental link, but he couldn't allow himself to. It wasn't something he was supposed to do caring so much for his friend; it wasn't proper considering how many misdeeds he had been up to, especially lately.

The Master somehow understood all that even without any additional mental connection between them and just held him tight against him, guiding the Doctor's head against the crook of his neck.

"Let it out, my dear Doctor" He whispered in his ear, letting his lover's faint perfume relax him too. "I'm still here, you know?"

Despite his better judgement, the Doctor eventually let out the tears he was trying to hold back and started sobbing desperately in the Master's embrace.

His Doctor was proud, arrogant, impertinent, childish… But he was a good man, a too good man that unfortunately loved him deeply. It was _his_ good man, as much as Ianto was Jack's.

As the Doctor held desperately onto him, the Master kept petting his fluffy white-blond hair, attempting to soothe his mix of relief and remorse. As he was doing so, his eyes rested on the other couple inside the TARDIS control room. The kid had still not waken up, but it was to be expected, since the body-formation process was bound to have basically drained his energy.

All they could do now was waiting.

 **TBC**


	5. In the dark a flame is burning

**In the dark a flame is burning**

* * *

It didn't take much to Ianto to come to all things considered. The first thing he could see with his brand new eyes, however, were Jack's red and puffy ones.

"Not much of a welcome back, isn't it?" Ianto pointed out playfully, offering Jack a kind smile that only managed to make Jack crying even more.

Ianto shook his head in amazement at Jack's fraught relief, and then decided to do what he did best, offering his Captain all his love and reassurance. He sat up with fatigue and enveloped him tight in his arms, letting his lover take all the time he needed to finally recharge enough that he could at least act as his usual confident self.

"I'm fine, Jack, stop crying" He continued softly, massaging Jack's back in calming, circular strokes with his graceful hand.

"I missed you" Jack managed to say in between the sobs. "You have no idea how much. I could do nothing without you… I couldn't even be myself without you..."

"Well, now I'm here" Ianto offered, tightening his grip on Jack as he left a small kiss on the top of his head. "And I'm not really planning of leaving you for the rest of eternity too, if that's what you wish"

Ianto's words didn't just make Jack staring back at him, but turned toward him also the Doctor and the Master, who were currently still cuddling at the other side of the room. Even though all three of them initially eyed him questioningly, for the two Time Lords the answer was just lying on plain sight.

A satisfied snort coming from the Master was the first sign that they were dealing with intentional misuse of time machinery and not just some kind of unintentional error.

"Oops?" The Master admitted under the force of the Doctor's glare, not sounding sorry at all.

"Oops, my foot. You planned this, that's why you didn't want my assistance and you didn't want to explain your Goddamned Plan!" The Doctor objected, earning on himself also the bothered stare of Ianto and the questioning one of Jack from the other side of the Control Room.

"You know, my dear, it really seemed to me a pity going through all that work for a limited bunch of years" The Master explained reasonably.

"You can't mess with fixed points in time like that!" The Doctor countered irately. "What about the consequences-"

"My love, if you and I really cared about the consequences, we wouldn't be here cuddling together at the moment"

"Somehow your last version of this same sentence seemed more convincing" The Doctor deadpanned, his right eyebrow twitching in disapproval.

The Master just chuckled at the Doctor's complaints and left a loving peck on his pouting lips. "C'mon! The boys are fine with it and you _can_ honestly say we did far _worse_ for far less"

"I'm not really fine with it, actually" Ianto complained flatly, sounding every bit like the Doctor when he preached about dire consequences for the world and noble rubbish like that. "But more because you didn't warn me beforehand. I would do everything in my power to lessen Jack's agony but, honestly, it's not really acceptable risking the whole world for a single person. Who knows what would have happened, who knows what price we will _still_ have to pay for this!"

The Master rolled his eyes at Ianto's remonstrations and stared back at Jack, waiting trustingly for his deliberation. The Doctor and Ianto turned to the Captain too, both of them daring him to defend the Master's plan and explanations.

"I'm sorry guys, I agree with the Master" Jack stated sincerely, despite the double pressuring. "It would be unpractical finding a way to make him immortal afterwards, considering the Doctor and Ianto's certain complains about hypothetical consequences for Earth, Time and Space. I'm perfectly fine with the outcome as it is"

"Jack!" Both Ianto and the Doctor protested, while the Master simply laughed at their betrayed annoyance and at the Captain's plain honesty.

"C'mon, Doctor, you can't hope that all your companions are like you" The Master comforted his lover with an affectionate kiss on his cheek. "Just feel lucky that he has now a stable counterpart for his own shenanigans"

As the Master stood up, the Doctor followed his movements with his eyes, a knowing grin plastering on his lips against his better judgement.

"Just like _you_ have _me_?" The Doctor teased.

The Master laughed quietly and offered the Doctor his hand to help him standing up, hand that he took gladly. As the Doctor was again back on his feet, the Master stared indulgently at him.

"Of course, my dear Doctor. As _you_ will always have _me_ "

* * *

When the four of them exited the TARDIS, the rest of UNIT was still waiting for them with trepidation. Realizing that everything had turned out all right, Jo was the first to give a practical display of her relief, clinging to the Doctor desperately.

Much to the Master's surprise, when he coughed politely to make her notice how the embrace was going on a little longer than he was comfortable with, Jo simply switched Time Lord, holding him in the same manner she had done before with her mentor.

Seeing the two Time Lords so occupied, the Brigadier decided to welcome back to the livings Ianto, who, however, was even less pleased than the Master was with the UNIT members' approach. After offering him a brief smile of acknowledgement, Ianto simply turned to Jack exasperated.

"First the Master, then the Doctor, now UNIT… You know, it's really quite an all you can hate feast" Ianto pointed out with mirth, earning a chuckle and a kiss from his lover for his trouble.

"C'mon, Ianto, this is 1973. The Brigadier's UNIT is nothing like the one we know" Jack explained.

Ianto answered his lover with a short juvenile laughter, deciding - for the moment - to leave the drama be, and offered his hand to shake to the Brigadier.

"Jones" Ianto greeted him, with a smart and apologetic smirk on his lips. "Ianto Jones"

"Jack told us what your problems with UNIT will be in the future" The Brigadier offered, accepting Ianto's hand to shake. "Still, I beg you to believe me when I tell you that under my guidance nothing like that would have happen"

Ianto nodded and stared back at his lover in adoration.

"If Jack trusts you, then is fine for me" He said plainly, turning then back to the Brigadier. "Still, I believe that the point of allowing Jack to cross his timeline wasn't just a matter of getting me back. I heard something about an alien invasion… I can help, if you wish"

"We're quite fine at the moment, actually, but I'm not one to refuse help when offered" The Brigadier told him. "If you want to be of assistance, I'm certain that the Doctor will fill you in quite easily"

The Doctor, feeling all the others' eyes on him, quietly freed his lover from Jo's embrace and dragged him towards the machine he had been working on, gesturing Ianto to join them as he passed in front of him on his way to reach the device.

"You see, last time with the Axons I forgot to-" And from there on the Doctor started explaining the workings of his machine to whoever would listen. Quite obviously, despite all the others' good will, only The Master - and very loosely Ianto - were actually able to follow his scientific rant in earnest.

* * *

Working together, finishing the remaining tasks proceeded indubitably easier, especially when it came to revise the Doctor's device so that it would work _without fail_. The Master felt great having the chance to be the one to correct his friend's work for once, even though the Doctor was much less happy about it. Ianto, caught in the middle, tried to mediate between the two Time Lords, offering his own suggestions and pointing out the obvious, something that ended up being extremely helpful especially while working with the two brilliant and easily excitable scientists.

The whole plan took less than half a day to be refined and put into action, with a success so complete that the Brigadier was ready to ask Jack, Ianto and the Master to stay amidst his ranks.

Jack and Ianto were all too willing to depart for their own time, but the Master, on the other hand, didn't seem at all inclined to leave, as long as the Doctor was willing to openly keep him at his side.

After eating, resting and saying their goodbyes, Jack and Ianto set Jack's Vortex manipulator to _return_ and finally dematerialised themselves back – forwards - to the 21st century. Waiting for them, there were the thirteenth regeneration of the Doctor and Missy, both anxious to know what had happened back in the Seventies.

After some well-needed explanations, since their memory still hadn't updated itself to the new set of memories, the Doctor started yelling at Missy for her goddamn idea, despite she herself couldn't really say she didn't appreciate the results. Missy, on the other hand, simply ignored her ranting, in favour of gloating for the success of her gorgeous idea and the perfect way her former regeneration had put it into practice.

"I am - and was - a genius, Doctor. Can you say anything different?" Missy retorted eventually.

The Doctor could actually do nothing else than capitulate and, with a deep sigh, just nodded at her lover, despite allowing herself to mutter reluctantly about how the end shouldn't justify the means.

Ianto was with the Doctor on that one, but considering that no one had actually ended up hurt and that he himself favoured white lies whenever the situation asked for it, he decided to step forwards in Missy's defence.

Missy, pleased by his surprisingly favourable testimony, offered him a job as her right hand man on the spot, but Ianto snappily refused the proposition, much to Jack and the Doctor's amusement.

After some other pleasantries, the four of them parted ways, not before the Doctor was completely reassured that they were indeed fine and that what she had done – or better, that she had let Missy do - could be actually be considered kind.

Once they said goodbye to the two Time Ladies, however, Jack and Ianto were at a loss of what to do with their eternity. While they wondered about what was the most sensible of their options and what to say to Ianto's family and friends, they decided to check in a nearby hotel.

The Doctor, despite all her good intentions on being kind to Jack, had promptly deactivated again time and space travel from his Vortex manipulator, bringing Jack to the necessity of finding, once more, a normal job on Earth.

Torchwood being definitively dead – with the eternal exception of old Glasgow - and UNIT still quite a bother, there were a lot of things to consider and even more they should definitively avoid. They certainly would like to go back to Wales, but even there now there was no Rift in time and space to care for, so it would just be a choice brought forward by nostalgia.

"A whole world to choose from and we're staring at the ceiling" Ianto deadpanned eventually, barely glancing towards Jack, who was currently laying next to him on the large bed of the hotel room. "Not even in my youth I had enough time and choices to actually wonder what I should do"

"Isn't it funny, though, that you received a work proposition from Missy and not from the Doctor?" Jack pointed out, still a bit maudlin about his being stranded once again.

"She couldn't bring us with her and you know it" Ianto stated plainly. "That's the reason why Missy felt no qualms offering us to stay with her. Smart girl, though, I have to admit it. When he's not yelling in madness and attempting to kill us, I really think I can honestly relate to the Master"

"You. Of all the people?" Jack countered astonished, moving to his side to face properly his boyfriend. "Are you sure you're feeling fine?"

Ianto rolled his eyes at his lover's joke and turned on his side he himself to stare back at Jack.

"Yes, Jack, I think I know quite a lot about pining for someone who not only I'm supposed to hate, but that also wishes with all his might to go far across the universe. Far away from me and my reach" Ianto explained, stretching out his arm to caress Jack's cheek with the back of his hand.

"Is _this_ how he convinced you to come back?" Jack asked him unsurely, taking Ianto's caressing hand in his to place a soft kiss on its palm. "I knew you wouldn't have done it just on your own accord..."

"Jack-"

"It's fine, you know" Jack hastened to add, dragging Ianto closer to him and hiding his head against the Welshman's chest. "I can't really hope you to love me enough to cross again the line between life and death after all I've said and done to you"

"Jack, listen to me" Ianto protested, manoeuvring Jack so that he could clearly stare in his sincere clear blue eyes. "I love you. I love you more than anything else and despite everything you might do"

Ianto sealed his confession with a soft kiss on Jack's lips, letting both of them savour the moment of their reunion with all the leisure their immortality gave them.

"I'm not one to put the end before the means, though, Jack" Ianto continued ruefully. "Not when this means having people dying or suffering. My coming back might _still_ have consequences, you know? How should I face people and protect them, when _I'm_ the cause of their distress in the first place? For my own egoism?"

" _I_ for myself don't bloody care! I-" Jack stopped midsentence as he stared shocked at Ianto before collapsing in a pearl of laughter. "You don't relate to the Master, Ian. You relate to the bloody Doctor"

Ianto lowered his eyes as the corners of his mouth pursed in a knowing grin.

"Well, let's just say a bit of both, then. We're indubitably different people: I would never pull out moustache and beard or a Victorian dress, much less a seventieth posh ensemble or a short blond bob"

Jack rolled over his lover playfully, holding him tight and covering his neck and cheeks in fleeting kisses as he towered him.

"I wouldn't bet on that" Jack teased. "I have some corsets in mind that would suit you just fine"

"Can't I have a break from your 51st century sexual madness? I just came back to life after I don't even know how many years" Ianto pretended to complain, his toes curling under Jack's impish assault. "We have no place and no work: we should work out priorities"

"Place: Cardiff. Work: ask. The. Queen." Jack spelled out to him, punctuating each and every word with a kiss, as his hands roamed everywhere on the Welshman's body, trying desperately to reacquaint himself with his long lost lover's hard muscles and soft skin "Now, can we do something more… like us?"

"Hmm…" Ianto moaned in agreement, enjoying Jack's attentions as he worked open Jack's shirt. "Hope you mean sex and not ignoring shamefully my feelings"

Jack snickered as he was biting and molesting Ianto's shoulder, the vibrations of the chuckle reverberating on the Welshman's skin and through his body in a delicious fashion.

"I'll amend... I'll make amend for everything" Jack countered around a mouthful of Ianto's shoulder before moving up to nib his collarbone and neck. "I love you, Ian"

Ianto pushed Jack slightly off him, so that he could kiss him properly and take his chance to throw to the other side of the room his blue shirt.

Their bodies came together naturally, like two halves perfectly matching. Tongues entwined and explored, reminding them of how it used to be, of how everything was supposed to be.

Jack in the end decided that he _could_ do without the fearful reminders of the 456 and put all his urgency to undress Ianto of his suit, which kept being in his eyes one of the too many eerie reminders of that fateful afternoon. Ianto continued to undress his lover as well, and soon they were both holding one another close together in a tangle of limbs, clothes scattered around them.

Hands roamed frantically on the slightly sweaty skin, desperately attempting to touch as well as to reassure one another that they were really back together and that now it was forever. Their cocks brushed one against the other, the friction heady and welcomed more than they could ever imagine after all those years of separation.

"I love you too, Jack" Ianto answered in the end, a light whisper in Jack's ear that somehow managed to lift a worry the Captain didn't even realise he was feeling.

Their hands moved lower, grasping their partner's hardness at the same time and with the same fervour. A few well managed strokes and they both came to the conclusion that it had been too long for the both of them.

Jack had lived through his life like an automaton, with little or no care for his own wellbeing; Ianto had been lost into a timeless space where nothing and everything coexisted altogether. Touching actual reality was for them a dream they had never thought possible again. And that certainly they had never thought possible through one another's touches.

Before even his trousers could follow his shirt on the growing pile of clothes piling up on the floor, Jack used one of his hands to rummage inside his pockets to get the lube he always had with him.

Ianto knew better than to comment about that, and hissed in pleasure as the first cold and slippery finger entered him.

It really was as if no time had passed.

His body apparently thought the same, loosing up quickly under Jack's probing. Quickly a second finger joined the first and then a third, while Jack used his own free hand to harden Ianto's cock even more and to keep him well distracted.

Swept away by the double assault, Ianto moaned and took a firm grasp of the sheets beneath them, in order to ground himself. Pleased with the results, Jack leaned once again over him and stole another heated kiss from his already swollen lips.

"Jack" Ianto moaned desperately, staring back at his lover with half lidded eyes full of need.

Overwhelmed by the mix of sensations he was feeling himself, Jack finally let Ianto go and squirted more gel into his hand in order to coat his own cock.

"Ready, love?" Jack asked, still a little bashful considering all the things that had happened between them since the last time they had made love together.

"As always" Ianto offered, giving him a soft warm smile that made Jack entirely forget that actually something had happened at all.

Nothing had changed: not their life, not their work, not their relationships with their families. Nothing had happened: not the 456, not the deception of the Government, not the House of Dead.

Stealing a last kiss, Jack finally entered his lover, and soon started to thrust in earnest. Ianto reached up to embrace his neck and bring him lower, closer to him. They both knew they weren't going to last much, therefore, without breaking the kiss, Ianto himself took it upon himself to stimulate his own cock, as Jack's thrusts inside him grew frenetic and hit with unfaltering precision his prostate.

When they came, it felt just like coming home. Complete bliss and warmth enveloped them, as Jack fell boneless over Ianto, who was ready to catch him and hold him tight in his arms.

"I missed you" Jack managed to mumble with the short breath he was left with. "You have no idea how much"

"I missed you too" Ianto answered in kind, tightening his hold on Jack, almost fearing that everything was too good to be real.

"We, though" Jack said shyly, almost not daring to look straight into Ianto's eyes fearing to have been too hopeful in his assumption. "We are a good start, aren't we?"

Ianto chuckled warmly at Jack's insecurities and kissed him once again lovingly on his lips.

"Love is always a good point to start"

 **THE END**


End file.
